Altice USA bought digital advertising firm Audience Partners with the aim of expanding its TV data and addressable ads offerings, Altice said in a news release Thursday.
Charter Communications' residential overbuild requirement "veered drastically" from what originally was proposed in the company's Time Warner Cable/Bright House Networks takeovers application and wasn't transaction-specific, NTCA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 15-149. NTCA -- urging agency action on its petition seeking reconsideration of the overbuild requirement (see 1606100043) -- said the agency didn't give notice it was "considering a forced competition requirement" until after the order was drafted and being circulated. Vice President-Legal and Industry Jill Canfield told Commissioner Mike O'Rielly aide Robin Colwell that NTCA wasn't seeking reconsideration of the merger but just that build-out requirement. The group said the requirement could lead to wasted resources and Charter neglecting some unserved areas while other companies cut back or exit markets. A draft order on circulation would eliminate Charter's requirement for 1 million-subscriber overbuilds, keeping the total buildout requirement at 2 million (see 1702240029).
NCTA asked the FCC to bring more "clarity and economic rigor" to its Telecom Act Section 706 report. The commission should "state clearly in the next report that 'advanced telecommunications capability' simply denotes an 'advanced' level of broadband, and that the previously adopted benchmark of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps is not the only valid or economically significant measure of broadband service," the cable group said in a filing Thursday in docket 16-245 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. It recommended the FCC "keep separate its discussion of whether 'advanced telecommunications capability' is being deployed in a reasonable and timely manner, on the one hand, and any discussion of the state of the 'broadband' marketplace on the other." The next report gives the commission an opportunity "to recognize that competition in the broadband marketplace is robust and rapidly evolving in most areas, while at the same time identifying opportunities to close the digital divide in unserved rural areas," the group said.
"Legacy brand" content companies and multichannel video programming distributors are held to a higher standard for their content than "so-called ‘Internet companies’ like Google and Facebook," said The Diffusion Group (TDG) senior adviser Joel Espelien in a blog post Tuesday. Pointing to the controversy over YouTube star PewDiePie's content and Disney's Maker Studios division's dropping most of its YouTube channel roster, TDG said AT&T's DirecTV Now, Verizon's Go90 and others have partnerships with new media stars with the aim of original exclusive content on their platforms: "Be careful what you wish for, guys. You just might get it." The research firm said YouTube kicked PewDiePie off only its paid YouTube Red service, but it left his YouTube channel alone since the viewers and ad dollars he drives are "simply taken as a given." Disney's reaction, meanwhile, "seems to be an overreaction," TDG said. "Clearly not everybody’s brand needs to be as squeaky clean as Disney," it said. "But not everybody can get away with YouTube’s casual indifference either."
The YouTube app will be integrated into Comcast's Xfinity platform later this year, including through the X1 voice remote, the companies said in a news release Monday. Along with being accessible through X1's Apps and Networks section, the Google product will be integrated through Xfinity On Demand, they said.
A class-action complaint by Charter Communications call center workers will go forward regardless of how U.S. District Court in Cleveland rules on a Charter motion to dismiss and compel arbitration involving just the named plaintiff in the complaint, we were told Monday by Anthony Lazzaro of the Lazzaro Law Firm, counsel for named plaintiff Daylon Howard and the others. Lazzaro said that of the close to 50 workers represented in the suit, only Howard signed an arbitration agreement. In a memorandum (in Pacer) in support of its motion to dismiss and compel arbitration filed Friday in the federal court, Charter said opposition to the motion is based on arguments rejected by the court elsewhere and on inconsistent out-of-circuit authority. The suit was filed in November for unpaid pre-shift work such as the time spent logging into the call center computer system. Charter pointed to a 2016 decision by the Ohio court in a separate case which said Fair Labor Standards Act claims could be subject to arbitration, and arbitration agreements aren't invalid because employees are prohibited from collective or class-based arbitration. Opposition to Charter's motion largely relies on precedent outside the court and outside the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in direct contravention to the court's stated preference, the company said. It said the burden is on the plaintiffs to show individual arbitration is prohibitively expensive and that the arbitration agreement isn't substantively or procedurally unconscionable. Lazzaro said the Supreme Court is expected to rule later this year on the validity of class collective waivers, an issue over which U.S. Circuit courts are split, and that could have sizable implications for the litigation.
A lawsuit by the New York attorney general alleging Charter Communications deliberately lied to customers about internet speeds (see 1702010048) has moved from New York Supreme Court to U.S. District Court in Manhattan. In a notice (in Pacer) of removal Friday, Charter said the claims, while citing New York state law, "actually arise under federal law" since the FCC regulates broadband internet access service speeds, including representations of those speeds. Section 207 of the Communications Act also allows litigating the conduct New York says is deceptive, Charter said. It said Congress barred other federal regulators from regulating common carriers regarding deceptive acts or practices, and that prohibition would be undercut if, instead of the FTC, state AGs were permitted to sue, Charter said.
Liberty Global's live-stream of a solar eclipse on Sunday from southern Chile was to have been in 360-degree video, it said in a news release Friday. The 360-degree feed was to have started at 12:30 p.m. GMT and be available on the company's YouTube channel, it said.
Viacom can't seek recovery from an unfulfilled advertising agreement since it didn't mitigate, reduce or avoid its damages, toy company MGA Entertainment said in an answer (in Pacer) Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. It said the complaint brought last month (see 1612300008) is barred because the alleged agreements "are the product of mistake of law [and] of fact." MGA asked for attorney's fees and expenses. Viacom previously sued MGA over other allegations of an unfulfilled ad agreement (see 1608120051).
Charter has until March 23 to respond to the New York attorney general’s lawsuit against the company for allegedly deceiving customers about internet speeds (see 1702010048), the New York State Supreme Court said in a stipulation released Wednesday. If the cable ISP asks to dismiss the case, the New York AG will have until May 3 to file an opposition and the company can reply until May 24, the court said.